Vegetable ideas for unattended garden

[DeanRIowa]

I will have access next year to as much garden space as I desire. The only problem is I will not be able to get to the garden other then every two weeks or so. I will be having my tomatoes and peppers at my home garden.

What are some good vegetables I can plant that do not need picking all of the time and very much attention?


I was thinking of pole beans(dry beans), watermelon, and cantaloupe.

Any other ideas would be great.


thanks,
Dean

[neoguy]

Carrots, onions, eggplant, brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and peppers come to mind. If you have access to the garden now you may want to plant garlic.

[Ruth_10]

I second Neoguy, though depending on your particular growing climate some of those (carrots, broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels Sprouts) might be spring or fall crops. Kohlrabi would go in that group as well.

In my experience, cantaloupe gets ripe all of a sudden, so the window for picking at the peak of ripeness may be rather small.

Winter squash and some summer squashes are other possibilities.

[johno]

Root vegetables - carrots, parsnips, etc. - are good candidates. Herbs also.

[Worth1]

Don't forget swiss chard.

Worth

[rxkeith]

kale would be another good one.

the problem i see you potentially having is weed control, and watering issues. unless you can lay down a layer of mulch or weed barrier, or have someone do the weeding, you will have a difficult time keeping up with the weeds. our main garden is over 2 hours from where we work, and we had a hard time keeping up with the weeding and watering this year. garden size won't matter if no one is there to take care of it. seedlings need to kept weeded until they get established. garden pests would be another problem. some critters can really wreck a crop in a 2 week period. i would start small, and really research low maintenance techniques. i just don't think 2 weeks between garden visits is going to work very well. you won't know if you don't try though. best of luck which ever way you go.

keith in calumet

[johno]

Keith brings up a really good point.

Is the soil in good enough condition to use something like the French Intensive method without too much work up front?

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organ...Gardening.aspx

In other words, could you just sow thickly to create a living mulch to drown out the weeds?

[DeanRIowa]

Thanks for the ideas. I have thought of maybe doing a three sisters garden. I think maybe dry beans, popcorn, and squash(Pumpkin and acorn). I might do some Carrots, onions, Brussels sprouts as suggested and a few tomatoes and peppers for seed saving(because of needed isolation).

Dean